


And Vengeance Came

by sophe



Series: Warden Secrets -Short Stories [2]
Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age: Awakenings, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: AU, Drabble, F/M, Female Cousland POV, Ficlet, Grey Wardens, Self-Doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 14:15:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1188273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophe/pseuds/sophe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Archdemon had been slain, Alistair was King and Elissa his Queen Consort, Ferelden seemed to be progressing towards thriving in the wake of the Blight, and the Grey Wardens are slowly gaining a stronger foothold in Ferelden.  However, the one woman who most thought would have been the Hero of Ferelden if she had been around, thinks otherwise.  Catte swoops into Vigil's Keep to remind the young Warden Commander of forgotten promises.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Vengeance Came

**Author's Note:**

> The more I write about Catte, the more I think of her future and while I know where she was during and after the Blight, I couldn't shake from my mind how she would respond to the ending of my female Cousland games (Elissa always romances Alistair and always becomes Queen Consort - I can't help myself). How would Catte respond to Elissa becoming Queen Consort, Arlessa, and Warden Commander? Apparently not very well.

Elissa was standing in the meeting hall of Vigil's keep. After being Conscripted, she never thought that she would wear any title other than Grey Warden, but here she was a year and a half later, Queen consort of Ferelden, Arlessa of Amaranthine, and Warden Commander. She didn't think of the other titles, Hero of Ferelden, Killer of Howe, Slayer of the Archdemon, Wife of Alistair, Survivor of the Castle Cousland Massacre, and all of the other things that defined her during the year the Blight threatened Ferelden. 

She looked over the rag tag group standing in the room with her. Oghren, Nathaniel, Anders, and Velanna. A dwarf, two humans, and an elf. They weren't much, but then she didn't have much when she was running from Ostagar either. She never really understood why they all just loitered in the room, it wasn't like there were many comfortable chairs, or that they would even stand together. Elissa took a breath and walked to the kitchen. She was hungry and lonely and what better way to fill the void than with food.

Elissa ignored her rooms at all costs. There were stacks of messages that needed her attention and had almost nothing to do with Darkspawns or Wardens. They were petty requests from petty nobles and though she knew that she had to look at them, it wasn't enough to detour her away from the kitchen.

She was picking at the crumbs of the cheese on her plate when the others meandered into the kitchen and sat around the table. Anders and Oghren closest to her, Velanna sat near them, but still apart, and Nathaniel sat as far from her as possible. Elissa pushed a strand of her red hair, a bright red that Alistair had always said reminded him of the sky when the sun set, behind her ear.

Elissa smiled at some joke of Oghrens she never actually heard. It was a farce. This group, these Wardens, weren't Zev, Leli or Wynne. They weren't even Morrigan or Sten. Alistair always told her about the friendship, the camaraderie of Wardens, but what she felt at Vigil's Keep was the furthest thing from camaraderie. This was a forced and strained union.

Elissa excused herself and left the others to their meaningless conversation. The letters sitting on her desk were preferable to the company of her Wardens. Once in her room she sat at the desk. Woolsey, ever efficient, had arranged the missives in order of importance and Elissa deferred to the First Warden's hand-picked administrator. Elissa couldn't focus her eyes on the words though, she finally just gave up, pulled a blank piece of parchment from the drawer and started scribbling down items. They needed to find this other Grey Warden, the one who had been sent to Amaranthine prior to her appointment as Arlessa and all clues pointed to the Blackmarsh. 

She had dealt with bandits, merchants, and so many other small matters that could never even begin to compare with the tasks she had taken up with Alistair at her side. Not for the last time did she wish he could be there with her. She knew that it was selfish, Ferelden needed a King, and despite his initial reluctance he was actually proving himself to be more Maric's son than Cailan's half-brother.

Elissa closed her eyes, remembering the days after the Archdemon had been killed. A woman had swooped, literally striding into the massive room as if she owned it, into the Great Hall and with her cloak flying out behind her, she stopped in front of Alistair and Elissa. The woman raised her arm straight out in front of her and pointed at the newly crowned king. Though both had faced down the massive dragon, home to the soul of a corrupted Old God, they flinched. Visibly flinched. The Warden Commander, as they soon learned, was not happy with them. She lectured and berated and chastised and even insulted them. After what seemed to be an eternity, the Warden Commander finally agreed to allow Alistair to put aside his vow to the Wardens to take up the role of King, but it was with a caveat, they had to name an heir within five years' time and as soon as the heir was named, he would step aside, acting as Regent until the Landsmeet felt the heir was capable of ruling. At which point, King Alistair would once again become Grey Warden Alistair.

At the Warden Commander's entrance, Elissa had heard Arl Eamon mutter under his breath, 'And Vengeance came to exact her cost on me'. Teagan had quickly followed his brother's words with an enigmatic statement, 'And I willingly handed over her payment.' Eamon wasn't mistaken, the woman was older, perhaps in her mid-thirties, but she personified vengeance. Elissa had stared at the woman's face, it seemed familiar to her in some way, but since most noble families in Ferelden shared some ancestors, she filed it away under the Warden Commander coming from Ferelden nobility.

As quickly as the Warden Commander had entered their lives, she had left. They knew that she skulked around Ferelden, but she never seemed to stay in one place for long and never offered to take up the task of Warden Commander in Ferelden. And so it had fallen to Elissa, with not only the First Warden's approval, but also his encouragement.

Which was how Elissa found herself sitting in her room in Vigil's Keep with more titles before and after her name than she ever wanted. She sighed and returned to her list. If she wanted to leave in the morning she would have to get the list of items to the quartermaster as soon as possible. The staff would be working well into the night, but once she left residence, they would surely have more than enough time to relax.

~

Elissa had intended to leave as soon as the sun rose. She had intended for her team to be ready to head off to the supposedly haunted area, but just as she had intended to stay in Denerim with Alistair, it was not to be. First Velanna and Anders had argued, quite vehemently, and once more she was wishing for Alistair to be there to stamp down the brewing magic everyone in the Keep could feel building. Then Oghren and Nathaniel started bickering. The packs hadn't been completed and Woolsey was trying to convince Elissa that she should help Amaranthine before heading off on some fool's errand to find a missing Warden, who surely wasn't actually missing.

Elissa wanted to scream, in fact she probably would have if Vengeance hadn't decided to make a second appearance. The massive doors slammed open. The crash reverberated around the room and effectively silenced everyone. (Elissa would later try to mimic the slamming open of the doors, and could never quite manage it. She figured that Vengeance and Anger and her lack of said traits during her attempts were the key ingredients.)

The Warden Commander wore the same black leather armor that covered her body from neck to feet. The silverite griffons on her chest actually glowed beneath the combination of candlelight and sparse sunlight from the open doors. Elissa swallowed back something she hadn't felt in a very long time, fear. This wasn't the fear of battle, this was the fear one had as a child facing down an angry parent. It had barely been more than six months after her first appearance in Denerim and Elissa realized while staring into the cold green eyes that it hadn't been nearly enough time.

"Warden Catte." Woolsey sneered.

Catte. Elissa knew the name. Warden Catte, she knew she had heard that name before. Always from the whispers of nobles when they didn't think children were close enough to hear. There was always an additional name whispered with hers, the King's. Maric. Catte. Warden. King. Whore. The words rushed through Elissa's mind and she blinked at the realization while at the same time chastising herself for not putting it together sooner. The Warden Commander wasn't just a Warden Commander, she was The Warden Commander. King Maric's Warden Commander. After the King's presumed death, she had stayed away from the Palace, but that had only served to encourage the rumors. The Warden Commander had gone after Maric, she had left Ferelden, left the Wardens to find the man she had seduced, ensnared, or loved, depending who was telling the story. At Ostagar older soldiers had questioned Duncan about the whereabouts of her, why wasn't she there as she had promised them, but Duncan said he couldn't reveal where she was, just that she hadn't forgotten Ferelden and was doing what she could to stop the Blight. Elissa had only heard smatterings of the conversation since Duncan never let her hang around the camp long enough to hear entire stories. So many things were a blur during those days, but the one memory she had, perhaps the memory of the Grey Wardens that had influenced her more than anything Alistair had told her, was that when anyone criticized the absence of the Warden Commander, the other Wardens tensed. If Duncan hadn't of spoken, she was certain that there would have been a brawl. The Wardens loved the absent woman. They would have died for her with the same conviction they went to certain death in the field of battle. 

Elissa's Wardens would never do that for her. Of that she was certain.

Elissa shook the rambling thoughts out of her head at the same time The Warden Commander had a dagger pressed up against Woolsey's throat.

"Care to try that again, Woolsey?"

"Warden Commander." The administrator might have spoken the words, but her voice held no respect.

Still holding the blade up to Woolsey's throat, Catte's smiled. It was feral, her lips pulled back to bare her teeth at the woman who refused to cower. "Run back to the First Warden. Tell him that the next puppeteer he sends to any outpost will be sent back to him with their hands severed."

Then without warning, at least not that Elissa could see, the dagger was back at her waist and The Warden Commander slapped Woolsey hard across the face with the back of her hand. The silverite decorating her gloves cut into the administrator's flesh and drew blood. She would be scarred, even with the assistance of a healer.

"And you." Catte turned on Elissa. She couldn't help herself, she took a step back. "Do you know why Wardens forsake all titles? Did you not listen to a word I said in Denerim? Are you daft?" With each question her volume raised until she was shouting loudly enough for the entire Keep to hear.

"I told Duncan that you were one of us. I sent him to you. I decided that your life, beyond all others was worth saving. And this is how you thank me." Catte stared pacing, gesturing wildly with her arms. "Duncan, apparently softer than I thought possible, sent both you and Alistair to the tower, he saved your lives, and yet you thank him by turning your back on everything that a Grey Warden is and should be?

"You ungrateful wench. And your Wardens, don't think I haven't heard how you've managed to get two of them, through Rights of Conscription." She spun and stalked to Elissa. "Do you know how many times I invoked the Right? Twice. Two times during my entire time in Ferelden and neither time did I ever complete it, I never even took them as recruits. The Right of Conscription isn't a tool to add to our numbers, it's a last resort. It's to save one from a life not worth living or a death not worth taking.

"And before you say it, Duncan used it on Alistair with my blessing, I would have used it if I were there. We had already burned the bridge with the Chantry and we had a vow we needed to keep. It was a last resort. You on the other hand, you use it as one of your blades to spite an enemy."

Elissa wanted to stop the words, she wanted to stop the onslaught, but she couldn't. She couldn't defend herself to this woman. And as she realized that she had no words to say she fully comprehended Teagan's words. Elissa would willing pay Vengeance's toll.

As suddenly as the anger arrived, it receded from The Warden Commander. "Elissa, I never asked how both of you survived. We all know that it's impossible, but that you somehow managed… I suppose that I never really wanted to know the answer. But that should have been my first warning. A Warden must be a Warden first and both of you put aside that duty. And now you are an Arlessa and Warden. How do you choose? Tell me, please, how do you decide where to put your efforts? There are darkspawn, who by all rights should be retreating far into the Deep Roads, roaming and resurfacing. How do you decide where to place your assets?"

Elissa glanced around the room, the other Wardens were looking anywhere but at her. She looked back at Catte and shook her head slowly side to side. "I don't know."

"Exactly. We don't stay out of politics because it's a necessity. We give up all we are because we must make the decisions no man can make. And a Warden Commander makes those decisions so that her Wardens don't have to live with those choices."

Elissa saw regret and sadness pass through The Warden Commander's eyes before they turned hard again. "You will clean up this mess. You will remember that you are a Warden first. After the mess is cleared, you will resign as Arlessa. You will return to Denerim and the other Wardens will leave Vigil's Keep and return to the Warden's Keep at Soldier's Peak. I will name the next Warden Commander once you are back at Denerim."

And then Vengeance was gone. In her stead was a vacuum of silence. Every Warden in that room took away with them a lesson. Some learned and others didn't. The Warden Commander hadn't marked Elissa, but she felt as if she had been stripped bare and every wound she had received since her Joining had been ripped open. She looked out the door long after The Warden Commander had disappeared from sight.

Years later, when she an Alistair would talk about The Warden Commander, she would wonder when she started putting the in front of the title and when she started capitalizing it in her mind. She would eventually come to the conclusion that it was at the same time she started thinking of the woman as Vengeance, when she fully comprehended the words spoken by Eamon and Teagan. It was also the same time she realized that as a Grey Warden she was a failure. Her entire history as a Grey Warden, doing everything in the name of the Wardens, was a farce. It might have been in the name of the Wardens that she had acted, but it was never as a Grey Warden.


End file.
